Funny you wrote about this. I just spent yesterday afternoon tieing my Phal spikes. I become obsessive with the spikes. I ignore these plants all year until they spike. Then I get crazy. I want perfect flowers.

Lights are the worse. I move them away from lights and face the window. I stick a tag on the opposite side of the pot so the pot always faces the window the same way. I start with short stakes and gradually increase the length with the spike. I use soft yarn until the spike is ready to flower and then tape it. Double spikes are tricky because you want to treat them individually and grow straight up so they branch evenly.

Phals are not my favorite orchid, but treating the spikes correctly, turns them into a striking plant. Thank goodness I only have to do this once a year!

Jane

Jeez This caught my eye this morning. I was going to email you Jane. We were just talking about this at the NYC Light Pow Wow. Spiced Ham is a mind reader! Your DH was complaining about photographing the "unruly". Relief is on the way!

I use a 28 w clf and move it around. Its a real pain. This way is easier.

Thanks Spiced Ham. Always love your posts! This one should be in the FAQ

Clara

Thanks for that post--reminds me that I need to start staking. I usually leave it too late. I have my phals about 10-12" below 48" fluorescent tubes. There is enough light that most of the new leaves are reddish. If I raised the lights to 15 or 18" would I get longer spikes? In other words, do the spikes reach for the light?

Yes - to a certain extent. I have Phals which have spikes which get huge. But the branching types stop at a certain length and begin to branch.

Lower light equals longer spikes. If you have over lapping flowers put the plant/spike end in lower light (get the end away from the bulbs - the cascade should help this). Light inactivates chemicals responsible for hardening elongating young cells. That chemical also prevents side branching so higher light should give you more branches on a shorter spike.

You see it all the time with tall straight oak trees in a dark forest, while the same species will be short and bushy out in the middle of a cow field. This is also why you don't want to grow seedlings under flowering light, it will stunt them.

Wait a second, Phals should be spiking now? I have one, and it is my first orchid, so I don't know anything other than what I'm learning as I go along. Mine still has flowers in bloom from the summer and there is no sign of a new spike.

Ah, but growing seedlings, you want them short and stocky. Stronger light = better plants.

This is a good guide - I personally enjoy the natural cascade of phals rather than the perfect uniform-facing cascades you see in some pictures. But if growing near a window, having spikes mash their noses against the glass is rather undesirable. In fact here's a funny story - one of my phals I decided to take downtown with me to my rental room, since it's just so bleak and plantless. I have it on my bedroom window (the only window in my rental house that is plant friendly) sitting between a curtain and the glass. At first, there were spikes growing towards the window, but then the silly plant decided to put out another spike on the other side of itself, straight into the curtain. I can't move the plant away from the curtain towards the glass because the first spike squishes into the glass. Nor can I move the plant further away from the glass because then the new spike gets buried in the curtain! I can't raise the curtain because my bedroom faces the street. So now I have a ridiculous setup where a box is positioned so it pushes the curtain away from the window in a little tent, under which my phal can happily spike away. Once the second spike gets long enough I'm sure it will see the light and change course, but a little bit of training may be in order. I just hate jabbing sticks into the media...every time I hear the crunch of perlite, I think I'm slicing up roots!

I must be getting pretty good light though, because I'm getting branches everywhere, even on old cut spikes I thought were dead. Thanks for the info on that one.

Jane, By your statement you should put them in full sun. Feel free to have small stocky seedlings, I want mine big, and that means growing them below "strong" flowering light. Indoors, we are mostly growing Phals at the low end anyway.

KristGray,

Don't worry, it is not unusual that your first orchid does not spike for you the first year. They are pretty messed up from changing conditions. Orchids are more tempramental than flowering houseplants like Christmas cacti, which is why the blooms have such value to their growers.

Not too long ago there was the post asking about trimming roots to fit Phals to the pot. went looking for it and got distracted by the other interesting posts I had not seen... anyway, did not find it. The thread made reference to an out of print book on Phal culture that advocated the root surgery. I was intrigued and bought a copy second hand on Amazon. I sort of skimmed the book but there is a chapter on training spikes, and in it he suggested doing the training late in the day due to reduced hydrostatic pressure within the cells of the spike. Less pressure = "bendy-er" spike.

I am in the process of bending a Doritanopsis to my will. I can honestly say there does seem to be a little less resistance to bending in the evening, though it could be observer bias too.

Richard

Sorry, Spiced I was talking about 'dirt seedlings.' I guess you meant Orchid seedlings. Either way, high light for seedlings sets the stage for a healthy, well built plant. I do push light for seedlings to encourage good leaf/root growth. I do not over fertilize, for the same reason. I don't want leggy plants. I'm not sure what you mean about 'strong flowering light.' I put seedlings in as much light as they can handle.

I find it interesting that cutting back on light causes the spike to elongate. It sounds good on paper, but it hasn't been my experience. Would you mind sharing that information?

I grow my few Phals (8) under very strong light outdoors. As they spike in fall, I try to keep them in as much sunlight as I can. Their spikes continue to stretch toward the sun, straight up. When they come in, they go as close to the window as possible. At this point, I don't worry about the leaves, I want the strong light for the spikes. The Phals that branch are genetically programed to branch. Light doesn't seem to have any role in branching.

What I do notice is that low light decreases the strength of the spike. Low light spikes are thinner and skinny. High light spikes are thick and robust. I'll have to pay more attention to the differences. It never occurred to me to 'decrease' light to the spikes.

Richard, I will try your 'night staking.' Makes absolute sense!

I apologize for any confusion,

Jane

Jane,
You are definitely right about the dirt plants, but then again, most yard and garden plants are designed to grow in full sun.

Two problems with orchids. 1) They don't move water as quickly as dirt plants so cell elongation is hampered more under high light/low humidity than it is with high water pressure garden plants. 2) Orchids are partial shade plants, and each has its own native place in the forest canopy, with forest floor growers like Paphs (and most house plants) being the lowest light. The physiology is adapted to a certain light range, too much light and you get daily chemical backup damage, and energy goes into cleaning up the mess each night rather than growth.

I disregarded the conventional wisdom to grow seedlings at lower light (probably I read in Northen's book and others) because I didn't think my light was that high, but after a while I found that I was even stunting my adult catts. High light also goes hand in hand with lower local humidity, and that may have been a big factor too.

I grew stunted (75% size) cattleyas for a couple of years until I 1) built the collection large enough that they were self shading due to being packed on the bench, and 2)I moved many to the Oncid benches. I also stunted Phals and Paphs under shoplights because I had so much reflective maerial around them (white stone below and mirrors on 3 sides. It wasn't until I recently moved and put my paphs in a bedroom corner that they actually started to grow big.

If you are having flower spacing problems, most notably with things like yellow Catts, which tend to open buds before they get out of sheath, you will get the spike to elongate more if you take them out of growing light and put them down into phal light when the buds start to mature.

The overal spike length of phals may not change noticable with high light because of high growth rate, but the flower spacing will. You might not have problems, but if you do, like with the yellow catts, keep that bud end out of the high light. The low humidity right next to bulbs doesn't help the matter.

The biggest problem I have ever had with light stunting was growing African violets in a bright apartment. Under my Phal conditions they were so flat and tight that flowers couldn't make it between the leaves easily, and watering had to be from below. That is why I laugh whenever I see it recommended that Phals be grown in AV light.

Calvin: boxes are absolutely necessary multi-function items for all pragmatists. :)

re light for spikes: What I have found is that spikes grown in higher light produce smaller flowers with intense colors. Just as a matter of personal aesthetics, I like those more than the paler, bigger, blowzier Mae West type of flower you get in lower light.

Since I am not growing for show or for sale, just to please myself, I give spikes as much light as I can and then drool over the radiant colors produced.

Jane: Like Calvin, I prefer a natural spike. Also, I'm a little lazy, so I stake a spike to grow upwards, and then let it be. But letting them growing upwards the way they want to, I have found that a lot of the newer phals array their flowers in an orderly way on the spike all by themselves. Breeders must be selecting for this trait (among others) these days.

I'm thinking of a raspberry Sogo Smith and a yellow Sogo David in bloom right now with perfect shingling on a tall spike with absolutely no effort on my part. Sogo is obviously breeding for self-shingling. You might find some of theirs easier to train.

Quite an interesting thread. Thx Spiced.

spiced_ham z5 NY (My Page) on Fri, Nov 9, 07 at 9:42 wrote: "I grew stunted (75% size) cattleyas for a couple of years until I 1) built the collection large enough that they were self shading due to being packed on the bench, and 2)I moved many to the Oncid benches. I also stunted Phals and Paphs under shoplights because I had so much reflective maerial around them (white stone below and mirrors on 3 sides. It wasn't until I recently moved and put my paphs in a bedroom corner that they actually started to grow big."

This is great tip spiced_ham! I have to be careful with my phalaenopsis seedlings! I could have swore the ones in high light (>2000 fc) grew a bit slower than the one in lower light. I attributed it luck/genetics until I read your post above. Shall be more watchful now - so thanks! alvin

Up against my SW window taken tonight. The longest spike (so far) is 28 inches. Bad photo, but you can see the spikes. The Phal on left has started branching. The spikes have not started budding yet. The spikes are still elongating.

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This is the same Phal a few years ago (high light).Taken toward the end of its flowering (note green out the window)That spike was covered in blooms.
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The spike is almost 3 1/2 ft. Noid Phal

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This is the branching orchid 2 years ago?? (not positive on the year). Dtps Beauty Sheen 'Lan Lan'

I have not noticed any difference in spike size, nor color, putting the spikes in full sun. The white phal has huge flowers and leaves.

Jane

Thank God for good genetics. Some phals can do no wrong, while some give you gnarly clumps of 2.5" flowers when that winter full sun hits them rather than the good spread of 3" flowers made under bright indirect light. Windows have enough down/dark time between high light periods that it often doesn't matter, greenhouses and big blazing grow lights are where some fine tuning might be needed. I had one that came out semi-semi-peloric if the temperature was too low, and clumped flowers if light was too high. Too bad because it put out over twenty flowers on three or four branches every year.